When the pull of Fandom, of Something, had gotten to be too much, Ned had finally listened to Kaylee and they'd gone back to the island. It felt...strange to be back. It felt strange and he felt out of place, unsure of what he was doing or what he was looking for.

( That would soon be made clear... )

Even with the excitement of graduation (well, the relative lack of panic attacks), Ned still wasn't happy. If anything, he felt a lot more alone and wiped than he had in the previous months. Maybe it was so many people leaving, maybe it was the futile hope of seeing family crushed when no one came to see him at graduation, maybe it was something ( Read more... )

The facts were these: Ned had spent the majority of the weekend alone. Holed up, if you will, in a place where walls were a commodity. It was easy, you see, to retreat to this way of dealing with things. He'd been doing it for nine long years. He saw no reason to stop now ( Read more... )